A fans musing on the characters and titles from British boy's comics 1968-1978

Friday, 2 October 2009

Janus Stark - ashcan edition

I'm going to start looking at Mr Stark with this oddity.I bought it quite a few years ago on eBay and its a collection of strips, shrunk down to about half the size of a British comic, with a card cover and the title crudely glued on.The seller maintained he didn't know the origin of it, having bought it at a boot sale. Think he was telling porkies there - he was selling quite a few of these of various other characters both when i bought mine and after.Anyway, despite it origins, its a handy way of getting a Janus fix all in one go. First strip is an origin tale but i'm unsure if its the very first episode, or a retelling from later.Its quite along episode for its time, clocking in at 5 pages and has, in quick succesion, the staples of future tales: Janus' lock picking skills, his elastic body, his public performing, putting himself through ghastly ordeals to escape,his massive ego and - quite a regular occurance - bringing a crook to rights then distributing his wealth to those who need it while walking off into the distance.

About Me

Born '62, growing old but not up. Ex-Projectionist.
Fan of decent film, especially 50's SF, Universal and Hammer horrors, the shorts of Laurel & Hardy. Love the British boys comics i grew up on, special effects in any form, history, mythology, fantasy and cheese.